Judge seizes ex-Emanuel comptroller's bank accounts

A federal judge in Ohio has ordered that $107,000 be seized from the bank accounts of former Chicago city comptroller Amer Ahmad, who was arrested in Pakistan last month after fleeing the country.

The money, held in two bank accounts controlled by Ahmad, will become part of the convicted former city official’s $3.2 million restitution, according to a ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Michael Watson. Investigators located the money, and a federal magistrate ordered it seized on May 1, days after Ahmad had been arrested in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials have said they arrested Ahmad at an airport in Lahore where they say he was trying to enter the country on a forged Mexican passport and forged Pakistani visa. Those offenses can carry up to seven years in prison in Pakistan, according to the country’s Federal Investigation Agency.

Ahmad’s arrest in Pakistan came about a week after his wife, Samar Ahmad, filed a request for an order of protection in Cook County in which she alleged Ahmad had sought a fake passport to go to Pakistan and had threatened to hurt her and kidnap their children.

Ahmad pleaded guilty to participating in a kickback scheme while he was deputy treasurer in Ohio, prior to being hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as comptroller in 2011. In December, Ahmad pleaded guilty bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, months after he abruptly quit his job at City Hall.

After Ahmad was indicted, Emanuel hired an outside law and accounting firms to audit his work for the city. That review found no indication that Ahmad committed any wrongdoing at City Hall.

Federal prosecutors alleged that while he was deputy treasurer in Ohio, Ahmad gave state investment work to a former high school classmate in exchange for having $400,000 funneled to a landscaping company in which Ahmad was part owner. An additional $123,000 wad funneled through a friend and business associate of Ahmad’s, prosecutors said.